Pew Charitable Trusts

Enough went into the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) to make the food industry queasy, but the new law’s limited reliance on third-party auditors is still enough to make consumer advocates feel about the same way — at least for a while. The FSMA’s final rule on Accredited Third-Party Certification means the private auditors that… Continue Reading

Public health advocates concerned about how antibiotics used on farms impact increasing resistance, have long expressed the need for more on-the-ground data – particularly use by species. In May, the Food and Drug Administration proposed adding estimates of drug sales by animal species — cattle, swine, chickens or turkeys — to the summary of the information… Continue Reading

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing to expand animal drug data to include information about species. Each year, the agency publishes a summary of the information animal drug sponsors are required to report every year by the Animal Drug User Fee Act (ADUFA), but the data are only broken down by drug class…. Continue Reading

Starting next fall, U.S. schools will have a new option for the type of chicken they purchase for school lunches. School Food FOCUS (Food Options for Children in the United States) and The Pew Charitable Trusts worked together to create the new Certified Responsible Antibiotic Use (CRAU) standard which will be verified by the Department of Agriculture…. Continue Reading

Tyson Foods, the largest poultry producer in the U.S., announced Tuesday that it would strive to quit using human antibiotics in its chicken flocks by the end of September 2017. The company, based in Springdale, AR, stated that it has already stopped using all antibiotics in its 35 broiler hatcheries, requires a veterinarian’s prescription for… Continue Reading

Fast-food giant McDonald’s announced Wednesday that, within two years, all of the chicken served at its 14,000 U.S. restaurants will come from farms which raised the birds without medically important antibiotics. The move could help limit the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture which contributes to an increase in antibiotic-resistant bugs that sicken humans. “Our customers want… Continue Reading

Food Safety News wrote a lot about antibiotic resistance this year — particularly the debate surrounding the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) plan to phase out the use of certain antibiotics in food animals, introduced in December 2013, and conversations sparked by the 16-month outbreak of multi-drug-resistant Salmonella Heidelberg linked to Foster Farms-brand chicken that… Continue Reading

A year after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released its Guidance for Industry #213, analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts finds that gaps in the animal antibiotics policy could allow for some drugs to be used at the same rate. In order to reduce antibiotic misuse and address the increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, FDA… Continue Reading

Public health advocates are calling on consumers to go antibiotic-free with their traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Earlier this week, the Pew Charitable Trusts posted its three reasons to buy a Thanksgiving turkey raised without antibiotics — the main one being that consumers can influence food producers to curb the overuse of antibiotics in livestock raised for… Continue Reading

The public is generally pleased with the revised provisions of four rules under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), but the public comments at the Food and Drug Administration’s public meeting Thursday suggest that the agency may have more tweaking to do. Certain aspects of the rules for produce safety, preventive controls for human food, preventive… Continue Reading